Listeners are invited to engage with the dialogue as the ACLJ’s involvement in defending vital Supreme Court cases is also put under the spotlight. Renowned figures and team members articulate the strategic efforts placed in preserving religious liberties and combating undue federal overreach. Through insightful interviews and calls from our community, this episode positions itself at the heart of a transformative period, paving the way for justice-driven policies and advocacy. Don’t miss out on how these changes could impact you and contribute to the vision for a fair and balanced system.
SPEAKER 10 :
Today on the show, Attorney General Pam Bondi launches a task force on DOJ weaponization.
SPEAKER 14 :
Keeping you informed and engaged, now more than ever, this is Seculo. We want to hear from you. Share and post your comments or call 1-800-684-3110.
SPEAKER 10 :
And now your host, Logan Sekulow. Welcome to Sekulow. Phone lines are open. This is Logan Sekulow, 1-800-684-3110. Will Haynes is joining us in studio. Later in the broadcast, Harry Hutchinson will be on. Professor Harry Hutchinson, as well as Attorney General of West Virginia. J.B. McCuskey moving from one Attorney General to another Attorney General. We are talking about, of course, the Attorney General of the United States, Pam Bondi, who is now, you know, well, she’s active. She’s doing it. It’s happening. I know it gets a little confusing of who’s been confirmed, who hasn’t been confirmed. If you’re not paying complete attention, she is serving right now as your Attorney General, Pam Bondi, been sworn in. As we’ve seen in the last few days, she has gotten to work and has been part of launching new task force, some that are protecting Christians, some that are against weaponization of the government. and some that have supported or gone against sort of the anti-Semitic bias that’s happening in the media right now. Will, there’s a lot happening, and her new department is going at it.
SPEAKER 13 :
That’s right. And this is a really big step forward in trying to clean up the DOJ and the weaponization that we’ve seen out of Merrick Garland’s Department of Justice over the last four years. But this is big news. So one of these task forces is going to be the Weaponization Working Group. Yep. And this is from a memo that was sent to all DOJ staff from the attorney general. And it gets into the bullet points of what they’re targeting.
SPEAKER 10 :
I want to start with just the subject of it. Like imagine like the subject of your email. It says restoring the integrity and credibility of the Department of Justice. The fact that that is a headline, that they have to do it, like the Department of Justice has been a defunct brand for the last few years, and now we’ve got to restore, rebuild, bring in new staff. I mean, it is essentially what’s happening.
SPEAKER 13 :
Right. And when it gets into what the working group will actually do, it’s remarkable because… It hits a lot of the points that we’ve talked about and fought against from the Biden administration over the last four years, whether that be Jack Smith, federal cooperation with the weaponization of Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg and Attorney General from New York, Letitia James. It talks about the pursuit of improper investigative tactics and unethical prosecutions related to January 6th. But these three… that are also bullet-pointed tasks of this weaponization task group, Logan. January 23rd memorandum in which the FBI suggested that certain Catholic religious practices were affiliated with violent extremism and criminal activity. They want to investigate criminal prosecutions under the FACE Act, the Freedom of Access to Clinic Interests Act for nonviolent pro-life protest activity and the retaliatory targeting and in some instances criminal prosecution of legitimate whistleblowers. You know, we represented whistleblowers. We have been fighting for the non-criminal prosecution and no prosecution of those that are simply using their freedom of speech to protest abortion as well as the egregious memorandum that was targeting Catholics because they are Catholic and saying that they could be domestic terrorists. It’s all right there. She’s getting to work and this is what we voted for.
SPEAKER 10 :
Yeah, and this is the ACLJ’s work that we’ve been doing for so many years. How does it feel? I want to get sort of your temperature. Give me a call, 1-800-684-3110. How does it feel to have a Department of Justice now saying the obvious, saying what we’ve been saying for years and actually putting it into action? Because a lot of these talking points were blown off by the last administration or actually said, no, it’s not true. That’s not happening. How does it feel? Do you feel good about where we’ve headed just in the last few weeks of President Trump’s administration? To hear all these talking points, whether it’s supporting Christian evangelicals, whether it’s supporting pro-life or pro-life Catholics, whether it’s going against the weaponization of government, supporting groups that are trying to fight anti-Semitism. How does that all feel? Does it feel vindicating? 1-800-684-3110. And that’s not all. When all of this is happening, the ACLJ is still in the fight. And you may not have been aware, we were engaged in three major Supreme Court cases in the span of a week. Just in the last week. We filed the Supreme Court this week to defend Israel. We also filed another Supreme Court case to defend religious liberty. And, of course, we are fighting. On Monday, we filed to… push forward to defund Planned Parenthood. So right now, your support is vital. Go to ACLJ.org. I encourage you to become a donor one time or an ACLJ champion. While you’re at it, download the new ACLJ app. Welcome back to Secular. For those just joining us, we want to restate that we brought in Harry Hutchinson as well to get his thoughts and feedback on this as Attorney General Pam Bondi. been assigned well to do a lot of new tasks including launching some new task force many of which are targeted specifically at topics the aclj has been covering for years and it makes sense we’ve worked with pam bondy for many years she is someone who uh has been a friend and someone that we’ve respected whether it was her time in florida whether it’s time with my family in the impeachment trials and of course now you have which by the way i believe was five years ago uh Just this week, it was five years ago this week that the acquittal came down for the first impeachment of President Trump. It’s been a long and short five years all at the same time. It feels like it was yesterday and feels like it was a millennia ago. But here we are. She’s in charge now. The subject of that memo that went out, as I stated earlier, which is my favorite, which is restoring the integrity and credibility of the Justice Department. And how is she going to do it?
SPEAKER 13 :
That’s right. So this is a working group she’s establishing called the Weaponization Working Group. It is in direct response because of the executive order of ending the weaponization of the federal government, which President Trump signed on Inauguration Day, January 20th. And Professor Hutchison, this goes to really the heart of many of the complaints the American people have had with the system over the last, now, I mean, more than just five years, because you think of the impeachment, you think of the Mueller probe and things of that nature, where we’ve seen the government overstep, waste taxpayer money on politically charged investigations that go nowhere politically. But at the end of the day, they also damage the reputation not only of the Justice Department, but of the United States as a whole. And what this working group is examining, it’s a laundry list of complaints that ACLJ supporters and the American people in general have had against the Department of Justice for going on close to a decade now.
SPEAKER 02 :
Absolutely. So what we have witnessed over the past nine years or so is massive malfeasance by deep state actors. And so Logan mentioned appropriately the impeachment trials and the ACLJ’s participation in at least one of those trials leading to an acquittal. But the Department of Justice has been engaged in a nine-year campaign to either prevent Donald Trump from taking office in 2016, or alternatively, they’ve been engaged in a program and policy of weakening and hampering the administration, really the administration of justice. And so who could forget, for instance, the Alvin Bragg trial? Basically, a 34-count indictment basically bootstrapping what? Misdemeanor claims, state misdemeanor claims into, in essence, a federal election felony charge. leading ultimately to a jury finding Donald Trump guilty with the possibility, didn’t happen, but there was a possibility that he would have to serve a jail time. But Alvin Bragg worked with Matthew Colangelo, a Department of Justice attorney in order to bring these charges. We also have Fannie Willis in Atlanta working with the White House. We have had Jack Smith bringing January 6th charges, essentially, in Washington, D.C., a classified documents trial.
SPEAKER 10 :
There are things we want to forget, Harry, but I understand.
SPEAKER 02 :
Yeah. All of these cases. But in addition, of course, we have had the FBI doing what? bringing FISA warrants against individuals who are affiliated with Donald Trump without probable cause. That is a violation arguably of the Fourth Amendment of the United States Constitution. So the Justice Department has been engaged in a process of injustice.
SPEAKER 13 :
And Professor Hutchison, obviously the the shiny object for many of us is because it was the easiest to see was the egregious violations that went after President Trump and the administration and him after his time in office. But What I also want to point out for our viewers and listeners is that this weaponization of the federal government doesn’t stop at going after people that have been elected that are political enemies. It also goes very far in stopping the weaponization against average Americans like we three here or any other person that happens to have conservative or Christian beliefs. and when you look at some of these things like they’re going to examine the memorandum the FBI had targeting what they called radical traditionalist Catholics the ways that the FBI and the Justice Department went after investigating parents that were concerned about their children and so they spoke at a public school board meeting or criminal prosecutions and how outrageous they were we remember that That man who protected his son in front of an abortion protest that was raided by a SWAT team, just a normal average person who stands up, uses his First Amendment speech to speak out against abortion, raided by a SWAT team, charged with a felony of the FACE Act. And then eventually acquitted. They’re going to look into those type of prosecutions and the retaliatory targeting against whistleblowers, which we know is so important to actually keep the Department of Justice in check. This Department of Justice will have whistleblowers, too, that they probably won’t like. But they’re also showing we know that’s the right process. That’s how this works to have accountability in government. I just want to get your take on that as well of the lengths that it’s going to go to protect Americans that aren’t elected officials. This is not just about politics and our favorite candidate. This is about everyday people and their constitutional protections.
SPEAKER 02 :
Absolutely. So I think if you look at pro-life demonstrators, if you look at the FBI’s memo going after Catholics that was issued out of the Richmond office and the LA office, and I believe the Portland, Oregon office, Why is the FBI focused on religious observances when we have a constitutional right to the free exercise of religion? So I think at the end of the day, what this particular working group will find is that they will find even more massive interference by the FBI In the lives of average Americans. Keep in mind, as you correctly point out, Will, the FBI went after parents who basically protested, perhaps vigorously, at birth.
SPEAKER 10 :
board of education meetings school board meetings don’t don’t you want parents to be engaged in the education of their kids the answer is no they don’t i mean i i trust me as a that we go to a great school and my kids are involved i hear the stories uh from other parents and they don’t you go back to the covid era of doing uh school remotely remember they said parents don’t watch what your kids are doing. Don’t watch on them. It violates their trust to, for you to be listening to what we’re teaching them. I mean, that wasn’t at my school. That’s not, cause trust me, I sat pretty close to them for most of it. And it’s like, I want to hear what they are teaching. I want to see what they’re doing here in this school. And I think that opened a lot of eyes up. The fact that they, number one, either they heard what was going on in these classrooms, even though it was virtual or number two, they found out, um, the teachers were so against them seeing what they were teaching. It’s a wild situation where you now have a department that can go in and try to root a lot of this out. And that has been, look, it’s true the anti-Semitism part of this. It is true with the anti-Christian bias. And I know people hear those things and they go, how dare you say there’s anti-Christian bias in America? And it’s like, it’s all clear. When you looked at the USAID, where was the money going? Even the ones that you would put quote unquote Christian, were ones that were Christian from a very left point of view. Either one of you, let’s take it.
SPEAKER 02 :
Well, I think essentially what the FBI has doing is pushing an ideological agenda so long as it is left wing. And so long, for instance, as it reaches the right conclusion from the perspective of the left on, for instance, bathroom policies or other policies. We used to live in Northern Virginia. They arrested a parent who was upset because his daughter was raped in school. Why wouldn’t a parent be upset?
SPEAKER 10 :
And he was charged. He was the one charged. Well, it’s ridiculous, but thankfully we have some new people in charge and things can get done. Phone lines are open at 1-800-684-3110. I encourage you to call because, look, one of the calls is about how you can… help combat what’s going on in different states and how attorney generals can get involved. We actually have a state attorney general, J.B. McCuskey from West Virginia, joining us to talk about how they are fighting the state of New York. And it is fascinating. You’re going to want to hear this. This is why you have important people, even in the state level, that are fighting for your beliefs and honestly for the support of people who really need it. The real workers who are out there doing these jobs. and that need support. You’re going to hear that coming up a little bit later in the broadcast, but there are some phone lines open. I’m going to take some calls in the next segment. 1-800-684-3110. And look, we’re not sleeping on any of this. The ACLJ is at it. As I said earlier, we’ve been at Supreme Court engaged in three major Supreme Court cases this week. And that’s for Israel. That’s for life. That is for religious liberties. And we have a major update. A good one. So stay tuned. Coming up on our, you remember when the pro-life, a protester, a protester, counselor got attacked? We’ve got a huge update. Take a listen. Coming up in just a moment. Welcome back to Sekulow. As I said, I wanted to give you a big update on that case. You may have remembered. It’s been, what, well, a year and a half, two years, a year and a half ago. There was, outside of an abortion clinic, there was a peaceful older gentleman who was there as essentially a sidewalk counselor. And he was attacked viciously on the streets. There is a big update in that case. I want to give you a little history of where we came from and now what’s happened. So we put together a special video presentation. Our team did. Take a look.
SPEAKER 07 :
So this case first developed about a year and a half ago over Memorial Day weekend.
SPEAKER 08 :
And tonight police are looking for the man who attacked anti-abortion rights protesters just outside of a Planned Parenthood in downtown Baltimore.
SPEAKER 01 :
It was a brutal attack. The assault happened around 10.30 a.m. on May 26th outside the Planned Parenthood building on North Howard Street.
SPEAKER 07 :
I was at home enjoying the holiday like most people when I got an alert from one of my colleagues saying that they read the story about two elderly men who were being up outside of a Planned Parenthood in Baltimore. I reached out to the pro-life community to see if anyone could put me in touch with these men and the ACLJ now represents Mr. Dick Schaefer in this case. Mr. Schaefer is staunchly pro-life. He’s 83 years old. He goes down to the Planned Parenthood in Baltimore every day to share his faith, to hand out pamphlets and information and blessed rosaries, and to encourage women that they can choose life for their babies. They don’t have to have them aborted. Mr. Schaefer was approached by a young man. They engaged in a brief conversation that Mr. Schaefer felt like wasn’t going anywhere. He tried to disengaged from that conversation when he was then football tackled into a concrete planter and knocked to the ground and knocked unconscious. Mr. Crosby, seeing the attack on Mr. Schaefer, ran to Mr. Schaefer’s aid and he got punched in the face, knocked to the ground and kicked in the head by the same man. The man then walked away and was not apprehended. Thankfully, the detective on the case kept pursuing the matter and about a year later, this man was apprehended.
SPEAKER 11 :
It took over a year to identify Bryce, but he’s finally arrested and indicted on two counts of felony assault, among other charges. The trial in Baltimore has started and we should expect a verdict any day now.
SPEAKER 10 :
We’re back now. Of course, if you were just listening to that, the big headline at the end of that was that he was found guilty. That is right. The attacker was found guilty. And Will, this is a big movement, obviously, for the pro-life community. If anyone watches that video, it’s hard to imagine a world where he wouldn’t have been. But this was in Baltimore. This was in an area where it’s not necessarily a hotbed for pro-life laws. But in this situation, they knew it was egregious, took it too far. And this could actually result. And we don’t have the sentencing yet, but we know that it could come with pretty significant sentencing.
SPEAKER 13 :
That’s right. So one of our big concerns at the outset of this was that it is a more liberal city. There is a lot of other crime there that this would not be taken seriously by the prosecutor, by the police department. just kind of not become a big deal. And it took a while, but they eventually did find the perpetrator. He was arrested, and the trial was this week. Our attorneys were there with our client, who is the victim, but our client actually had to testify. before the court as the victim. So our attorneys were there for guidance, for helping prepare, to give testimony about the crime that was perpetrated against them. And it is a great thing because it was a jury trial. There was jury selection this week and it didn’t take too long for the jury to come back with guilty verdicts against this individual. There were two victims there. The man was convicted by a jury on two secondary assault charges. Those can carry up to 10 years each. Obviously, it’s up to the judge whether they’re served concurrently or consecutively. But there is a significant jail time that goes along with this charge. It’s such a great moment. When you can see our attorneys fighting for justice and getting that justice, especially when you know how aggressively the federal government under the Biden administration went after peaceful, nonviolent protesters in front of abortion clinics under the FACE Act. So many that President Trump had to pardon those that they were there peacefully. They weren’t attacking people. They weren’t kicking elderly gentlemen in the face while they’re on the ground. But here we see real justice. We see assaults that were perpetrated against elderly gentlemen. And we stood with our client the entire time to ensure that this didn’t get dropped and that this did result in justice.
SPEAKER 10 :
Yeah, and it did. And of course, this is at no cost, by the way, to our client, as it always is if you are represented by the ACLJ. And how does that work? Obviously, it works by people like you who want us there when you’re going to need us. You support the work of the ACLJ financially and therefore we can operate. Cause you know what? A lot of people could not afford. to take a year and a half of their lives and their finances and legal fees to pay all of that every hour that you got to do. They couldn’t do it. We wouldn’t be able to fight for you without. So I encourage you right now. That was just one thing we did this week. And there are hundreds of action items that are happening each and every month. And right now, I mean, we were involved, like I said, in three major Supreme Court issues this week, whether that was for life, whether that was for Israel, whether it was for religious liberty in general. We can’t do it without you. So I encourage you today. Your support is vital because this is happening on the state level. And we just helped secure that conviction. You know, our client was brutally beaten up and it took a year and a half outside of a Planned Parenthood clinic, but took a year and a half to get that conviction because we’re going to seek justice whenever we can. So I encourage you right now, go to ACLJ.org and make a one-time donation. And if you can, become an ACLJ champion. That’s someone that gives on a monthly basis, automatically recurring. Of course, it’s all tax deductible. You can do that. I did want to tell you a fun thing because it’s a great way to donate. I’ve actually done this, is download the new ACLJ app. The app is available in the App Store. Just go into aclj.org slash app. If you have an Apple device, you can use Apple Pay now to make a donation or there’s other options. There’s great ways to do it. It’s also available on Android, but that’s a great way to do it. Again, I don’t want to sound like I’m doing an ad here, but when I hear the results that can come out of our team, when you just saw that video, you saw one of our attorneys telling you about what this story really is and who it impacts because it’s going to impact all of us. And you have to remember on the state level, it’s different. You may look at what’s happening in Washington, D.C. You hear about Attorney General Bondi doing all of this. But remember, on the state level, in states like Maryland and in states like Massachusetts, where they are not friendly to pro-lifers, that sometimes you have to fight hard and you’ve got to fight for a long time. Of course, we’ll be rolling out that campaign in Massachusetts to fight against the push against pro-life pregnancy resource centers. We’ll be rolling that out very soon. And we couldn’t do that without your support either. All of this comes into play. And in the next half hour, you’re going to hear from an attorney general of a state from West Virginia about how he is fighting against other states, the state of New York, on behalf of his people because they are trying to level huge fines on them for just doing their job. just working real hard jobs. We’re going to talk about that in detail coming up in the next half hour. I’m going to encourage you right now, though, to give us a call. We’ll try to take some calls. We’ll even try to take one in the next segment. 1-800-684-3110. That’s 1-800-684-3110. If you’re watching on YouTube, which I know thousands of you do each and every day, whether you’re live or you’re watching this archived, hit that thumbs up. And if you haven’t, hit that subscribe button. We are now about to cross 465 thousand youtube subscribers alone that is amazing it’s amazing the amount of people who want to hear from us but the more people that you subscribe the more people hit that thumbs up and that bell i know you’re hearing you’re probably like this sounds like one of my kids favorite youtubers you don’t understand how important it is you don’t understand how important it is to get the message out there to a new generation of people We’re going to hear this possibly for the first time. And I always know there’s between 30 and 50% of people watching right now who have never seen my face. Hello. Welcome to secular. We’ve got a second half hour coming up. Don’t go anywhere. This break is only one minute for our radio audience. Put a great video together. So if you’re watching on any of our content, we’ll be back in less than a minute.
SPEAKER 14 :
Keeping you informed and engaged now more than ever. This is Seculo.
SPEAKER 10 :
And now your host, Logan Seculo. Welcome back to Seculo. I did want to take some calls because we have some really cool news happening right now. That’s, of course, the new administration is really starting to take to task a lot of the content and a lot of the issues we’ve had for the last many years here at the ACLJ. whether that’s anti-Christian bias, whether it’s anti-Semitic rhetoric that’s happening throughout the country and throughout the world, or, of course, even the weaponization of the government against people that they disagree with. And Attorney General Pam Bondi put out a subject for this memorandum, Restoring the Integrity and Credibility of the Department of Justice, and some of you have called in specifically about that. Let’s go ahead and take some calls. Let’s go to Warren first, who’s listening on the radio. Warren, you’re on the air.
SPEAKER 03 :
Hi. Hey, gentlemen. I’m curious, back during the… pandemic, our governor, Jay Inslee, pretty much took over as a dictator using his emergency powers. And he wasn’t the only governor who did this. And it literally destroyed this state as far as a restaurant, people’s businesses. It was just horrible. And I have a two-year degree in law enforcement from 50 years ago. And I was just amazed at the violations of people’s rights. Is there anything Pam Bondi or the federal government can do when we have these renegade governors? I mean, you had to have a vaccine to get to keep your job.
SPEAKER 10 :
I mean, there’s certainly, Warren, some protections that can be placed, and we’ve seen that happen already.
SPEAKER 13 :
We already know that Pam Bondi is doing things like pausing all funding from the DOJ, going to departments… that are sanctuary cities that have sanctuary laws so that is it’s one way the federal government that funds local law enforcement to try and help strengthen the law and order of of our country they can do this through not sending money to those cities but also there’s the the department of justice civil rights division where they can look into if areas, localities, states are violating the civil rights of Americans through the way they do law enforcement or the way that there are different actions within the state. So there are a number of things that Pam Bondi as Attorney General can do to have oversight into the way things are conducted. Now, anything that’s not violating the Constitution, the states have a lot more leeway on. But the Supremacy Clause of the Constitution does give the federal government a great amount of power and oversight over the laws of the states because the states can’t have a law or a regulation or anything that is in direct conflict with the federal law or the national law. laws, regulations, or constitution. So I think there are a lot of things that the Attorney General can do in looking at the way the states are doing things. That’s also how a lot of times Supreme Court precedent gets made is when a state enacts a law, the Department of Justice says this is contrary to federal law, this is in violation of the supremacy clause or things like that. So the federal government sues the state and that goes through federal court system, many times making its way all the way up to the Supreme Court. So, Warren, I think there is a lot of action and many you may not see because it may not make a lot of news. It may be a small regulation in the state, but has long lasting precedent for the rest of the country.
SPEAKER 10 :
And you’re going to hear about one of those happening right now in the state of West Virginia from in the next segment. We’re going to be joined by the attorney general, the newly elected attorney general. of West Virginia, J.B. McCuskey, who’s a longtime friend and ACLJ alumni. So it’s pretty cool to have him on to talk about what they’re doing to protect their own citizens. 1-800-684-3110 to have your voice heard on the air today. We got a lot more calls coming in, and I encourage you right now to call. In the next segment, we’ll have J.B., the Attorney General. I got to start calling him Attorney General McCuskey. But after that, we’re going to take as many calls as we can. So keep calling 1-800-684-3110 and support the work of the ACLJ by donating now. at aclj.org but tom julie kimberly trent stay on hold kirk we’re going to try to get to as many of you as possible and of course if you’re an aclj champion there’s a great thing that happens you tell our phone screener you get bopped up to the front just a little perk we like to throw in there and you get a new customized experience on the aclj app that’s just for champions So go to ACLJ.org if you can donate one time, great. But if you become a champion, you are supporting and creating that incredible baseline for us to keep us all in these fights. So do it right now. Give monthly. ACLJ.org slash champions. Do it right now. Because we are engaged on every level and we need your help. We’ll be right back with Attorney General McCuskey from West Virginia. Welcome back to Seculo. A few phone lines are still open. 1-800-684-3110 in the next segment. We will take all your calls, as many as we can. Again, 1-800-684-3110. We are joined now, and I love being able to say this, by Attorney General J.B. McCuskey, who has been a longtime friend and ACLJ alumni. J.B., there is some really great action that you’re taking. I just watched your press conference. It was held yesterday. I think you need to tell people what you’re doing, not only to support the people of your state, but to make sure other states, these blue states, are not going to come in and infringe on the workers and the people in your area.
SPEAKER 09 :
Hey, Logan, what’s going on, buddy? How do I get a job where I get to wear a hoodie to work? That’s what I’m not accomplishing right now.
SPEAKER 10 :
That’s why. So you have to just be the cool one.
SPEAKER 09 :
I just have to be the cool one. Well, that’s probably not going to happen.
SPEAKER 10 :
I don’t know. I saw the press conference. It looked, it was pretty cool. You were out there. I was like, this is good, man. This is good stuff. So go ahead.
SPEAKER 09 :
Yeah. So, you know, In West Virginia, for the last 150 years, we have been the tip of the spear on making the energy and the steel that created this country. And we have a philosophy here that we respect people that shower after work just as much as we respect people that shower before work. And the men and women who work in the coal, the oil and gas, the steel industries, all of these industries created the environment and quite frankly created the steel that built the skyscrapers that these people in New York are looking down on us from. And there is a complete lack of understanding and respect for the effort and toiling of those hardworking men and women here that I find so apparent in this lawsuit. Number one, The law in New York is obviously, in my opinion, unconstitutional. This is a fight that was easy for us to take on because this is the kind of law that our framers and the founders of this country didn’t want to happen. They didn’t want one state promoting its style of economy at the expense of the other ones. And that is exactly what this does. And secondly, just from a sort of a layman’s perspective, The idea that coal, oil, and gas companies owe the state of New York $75 billion for simply doing what it is that they are permitted to do, we’re legally doing, and we’re doing, quite frankly, in the benefit of the people of New York as much as anybody else, to say that they now owe New York $75 billion so that they can try to manage their economy, which they have obviously bungled, is really, really… sad, it’s sort of terrifying, but it’s mostly outrageous. And so we have a great team of lawyers here who’ve been working at this for a very long time. And we’re really excited for this fight. We’re excited to show the world what a great professional legal environment we have here in West Virginia, what our lawyers are able to do, and to go up there and win this case.
SPEAKER 13 :
General McCuskey, it’s Will. Good to see you. When we had you on the broadcast right after your inauguration, we talked about the importance of conservative state attorneys general like yourself that can take on what we now know will be even more radical leftist agenda items from these blue states because they don’t have the cover of the Biden administration anymore. I feel like For many people as well that are watching from all over the country, you see this story and you think, well, my state’s not really an energy producing state or I don’t have that industry here. We’re more agriculture. This doesn’t really apply to me. But I think when you look at the precedent setting of this, it does affect us all. And that’s why it’s so important that you are taking this on and being the tip of the spear on this. Because if New York can get away with this, targeting an industry they don’t like in a state that isn’t theirs with these retroactive egregious level fines, then I feel like any state at that point, if you were not fighting back, can just start going down the list of anything they don’t like that isn’t in their state and trying to cripple that. It’s economic warfare, right? from these states. And I think just the precedent alone is why it’s so important for every American to pay attention to what your lawsuit does.
SPEAKER 09 :
I don’t think I can answer that question because you just said it so perfectly, Will. Everything you just said is exactly correct. And nobody wants to see a world where all the states are doing exactly what you just said. That would cripple the American economy almost instantaneously. We are a United States, right? Our states are part of one grand idea. And all of us are supposed to be a patchwork of different skills and different mindsets and different ways of contributing to what is American exceptionalism. And if one state is able to say to another state, your contribution to American exceptionalism offends us, then this patchwork is going to start, the economic patchwork that we have will start to fail. And that’s the reason why there’s a federal government. That’s the reason why the framers created things like the Commerce Clause and the Dormant Commerce Clause and the 10th Amendment, you name it, right? Is so that we can continue to live in a country that was founded upon a set of ideals and an idea that is so exceptional, it’s so different than anything else in the history of this world, that it is actually even kind of offensive to the general idea of why and how the United States was created and how and why the United States has become the world’s greatest country, uh, probably in history. And so, um, yeah, absolutely. There is a, there’s a larger, there’s a larger art to this that I think you espouse beautifully in your commentary there.
SPEAKER 10 :
And I’m seeing a lot of comments come in right now. A lot of people who have family or are in the steel industry or in the coal industry. I mean, this is not something that only impacts small areas. It affects a lot of people’s families. And I think as Will said, you got to make sure that you start thinking a bit more, uh, you know, for the country, Think about all your family that you have in this, your friends. Someone’s connected to these kind of industries. But you also had Governor Hochul come out, make a tweet, a statement, a post, whatever you want to call it now, on X, and said, specifically, I think we have it, bring it on. It was responding to you directly, because the first thing is Attorney General McCuskey is joined by… representatives of the coal and natural gas industry she responds of course after she’s already called conservatives and and people who who maybe voted for president trump they she already called them clowns we know that happened and we always say send in those clowns you know what to do but when you hear responses like bring it on what’s your feedback what’s your response
SPEAKER 09 :
I’m a lawyer, and I’m a lawyer who takes my ethics very, very seriously. I’m a lawyer that takes the way that I’m perceived very seriously, and I would never engage in the kind of petty social media sort of malarkey that Governor Hochul is doing there. we’re gonna show our hand in court, and we are gonna do this the way that it’s supposed to be done, and that is in front of the Northern District in New York, in front of the Second Circuit, and at the United States Supreme Court. There’s a way that professionals and adults do this, and I’m very well committed to making sure that that we present ourselves as we are, which is a group of people who are hardworking, humble, with great values. And I’m sure that Governor Hochul, she had noble ideas when she signed this bill. I’m sure that she wasn’t sitting in her office in New York saying, I hope that West Virginia families continue to struggle with high energy prices. And I hope that American families aren’t struggling with high energy prices. I’m sure she wasn’t sitting there saying, we’re gonna do something that is going to really affect the way that like we talked about before the American economy runs, I’m sure that she had a very noble purpose. We don’t think that purpose was constitutional and we’re really looking forward to taking to taking our arguments in front of the judiciary in a way that this country designed. And so, you know, the idea that grownups are going to get into petty fights, over $75 billion worth of fines to well-meaning and great companies who’ve done nothing but support the success of New York for the last 150 years, we’re not going to get engaged in that.
SPEAKER 10 :
Well, I mean, that’s good for you. I’m glad that you said that. It’s refreshing to hear. I mean, look, I’ll be honest. I want to go to bat. I’m like, come on, we got to, but I get the feeling. I get the vibe because look, us at the ACLJ and of course on the secular broadcast, whatever we can do to help you, whatever we can do to support it will, because these are issues that impact everybody.
SPEAKER 13 :
That’s right. And it is always an honor to have relationships and friendships with people like General McCuskey in West Virginia. And we look forward to seeing the ways that the ACLJ can engage with your office in West Virginia to further the mission of protecting the Constitution and the rights of everyone in the United States.
SPEAKER 09 :
Yeah, I mean, I think the long and the short of this, this isn’t a game that’s being played on Twitter. This is the livelihood of millions of Americans. This is the lifeblood of the American economy. And if you really want to talk about being short-sighted, we are engaged in a new kind of worldwide war. And that is, who is going to be the person that takes advantage of computing data and AI first? Who is going to be the country that says to the rest of the world, we have perfected this. We are using this in the ways that are going to make the people of the world more successful and happier. And right now, the amount of electricity that we make isn’t even close to the amount that is going to be needed for America to lead on that. And I can tell you that this is just an absolute truth is that we are not going to be able to fill that delta of how much electricity we make now and how much we’re going to need with anything other than fossil fuel generation. And so if you’re going to, on one hand say, you know, we’re gonna have, Wall Street is gonna be found right in the middle of our city and we’re gonna have billionaires created every single day trading these stocks and these companies on the future of their AI revolution and we’re all gonna get super rich And then on the other hand, say we are going to fine every single group that is making the electricity that’s going to allow that revolution to happen, $75 billion, that makes absolutely no sense. It has a very, very significant effect on America’s ability to be able to lead in AI and data. And we’re happy here in West Virginia to have the opportunity to, with the natural resources that God has granted us right below our feet, We’ll be right back.
SPEAKER 10 :
We’ll be right back. I’m sorry, JB. We’ll be right back with more calls. We’ve got a hard break here. Welcome back to Sekulow. Attorney General J.B. McCuskey is joining us to wrap up. J.B., we’re sorry we thought we had a hard break there, but I wanted to give you a moment before we take these calls. And look, we got one line open, 1-800-684-3110. Give me a moment to kind of wrap up your thoughts and how people should be thinking about you, how people should be praying for you, because it is an important time for West Virginia, a course that will also have ripple effects around the country.
SPEAKER 09 :
yeah i mean i think it’s important for us all to pray for this country every day uh… you know we are we are blessed by god to get to live in this place and i think it is uh… i think it is good and it’s right for us to to pray and and thank uh… our creator for for that opportunity uh… and again like i was saying before the end of that break This is something that I’m very passionate about, which I’m sure that you could see there. I know the men and women of the coal industry. I know the men and women of the oil and gas industry. I know the men and women of the steel industry. And I will not allow anyone to discredit their contribution to American exceptionalism. And I certainly will not allow anyone to try to make America less secure and to make the energy bills and the lifestyle of the American family And we’re just excited to continue this fight and we’re excited to see where this goes.
SPEAKER 10 :
Absolutely, JB. And you know that we will be there for you however you need us. So again, amazing to hear from you and amazing work going on there. Thank you so much for joining us today on Seculo. I did want to segue now, though, and take some calls because a lot of people are calling in. Let’s go ahead and go. Let’s go in order because some of you have been on hold for a long time. Tom’s calling. You’ve been watching on ACLJ.org. You’ve been on hold for 50 minutes almost. I am sorry, Tom. We just have not been able to get the calls yet. Tom, go ahead.
SPEAKER 15 :
No apology needed, guys. You’re worthwhile. You guys rock. Thanks for exposing Congress and the Democrats for all the embezzling or extortion, whatever you want to call it. I got a suggestion for y’all to push, and that is that no expenditure, not $1 of taxpayer money be spent on anything without it being made publicly aware and published in every forum, newscast, whatever. And also, the second part of that is to make the IRS audit our Congress and all of our political expenditure from here on out.
SPEAKER 10 :
Look, I think, Tom, this is a part of what the Doge Department is doing, the Department of Government Efficiency, which is to show you not only what’s being spent, but what could be coming down the right. Because there are certain things, of course, that we are going to want to fund. uh that need to happen you know there are americans are good people humanitarian people but when you got that list yesterday of all of the craziness that was being funded of course you had the egregious ones of eight million dollars going to politico and those kind of operations of course funding a lot of very random international programs that seemingly would have no effect on america and seemingly you couldn’t even find paper trail to where they even went uh tom i think you’re right i think that would be a great idea is show american people before it happens where the dollars are going
SPEAKER 13 :
That’s right. And I mean, it’s always humorous when you look at the fact that about 5,800 IRS or contract employees owe nearly $50 million in overdue taxes. So, Tom, unfortunately, I don’t know that they would be the right person to audit the federal government or federal employees or Congress because they sometimes have a hard time themselves being able to keep up with it. But it’s also, it goes to a lot of the bias that you’re seeing out there that, oh, that if you defund USAID, it’s going to kill people around the world and things of that nature. President Trump last night effectively said that 10,000 employees are going to be cut from USAID. They are keeping around 280. And what are those that they’re keeping focused on? Humanitarian work? and and health work around the world kind of the things that it was supposed to be doing originally but it got so bloated and out of control is what you see uh has been happening and exposed over the last few days yep let’s continue on and take some more calls i want to jump to kimberly who’s calling watching on youtube kimberly you’re on the air you’re in california
SPEAKER 06 :
Hi, good morning. Oh, I’m not so sorry. It’s okay. I’ve been a contributor for a long time. Thank you. I’m a champion. Awesome. I got into a chat with a troll. I got so irritated. I finally told him, you know what? You’re so egregious at slandering the ACLU. I’m going to double my commitment. Awesome. And I made good 65% of it. I made good on that this week. So I increased my commitment.
SPEAKER 10 :
Kimberly, thank you. I really appreciate that. And they say don’t feed the trolls, but I like that you got engaged and said, you know what? The best way to engage them is to fight back and to show what we can do. And the fact that you got into that one, that you got into the discussion of supporting us here. Look, I know when you open up yourself on YouTube or Rumble or Facebook, wherever it may be, you’re always going to have those people who are going to come out against you. And it’s often good to take a breath and make sure that you’re not just giving them the satisfaction. But of course, in his name or in their name, you’ve doubled your donation and know how much I really appreciate it. Make sure to tell our phone screener next time that you’re a champion because I will make sure you get bumped up to the front of the line. You got to go second. But I would have made sure you were first because I really do appreciate everyone who gives on that monthly basis because most people give at one time or they give throughout the year, but they give it individually. And that’s great. I’ve got no problem with that. I want you to do that if you can. So if you want to give a $50 gift, great. But there are people who do give on that recurring basis. It automatically charges. You can cancel any time. And that gives us a good idea of where we’re going and what we can plan for. So again, that’s at ACLJ.org. Let’s continue on. Let’s go to Julie. She’s calling in Oregon, listening on the radio. Julie, you’re on the air.
SPEAKER 04 :
Hey gentlemen, thank you for your work. And, uh, that just tickles me about Kim and what she did. I love that. It makes my day. Um, and I’m also so pleased about the outcome of the Planned Parenthood case in Maryland. Um, congratulations you guys on that. Um, my question pertains to, um, the people who are just completely unhinged right now about Elon Musk, um, acting as the, um, the head of Doge, saying he’s not been voted for. But doesn’t his appointment by President Trump, whom we totally voted for, make it appropriate? Of course. Or is he supposed to be voted by Congress?
SPEAKER 10 :
Julie, and one, it is different. It’s a new department. We went through that. Listen to yesterday’s show because we went through it in detail. We’re running out of time. But of course, it’s just like when they say a hand-picked candidate Attorney General. No kidding. You voted for a president. And yes, those people get confirmed. But you voted for a president. Of course, they’re handpicking their team. Why would you pick a bunch of people who don’t like you?
SPEAKER 13 :
And I do think, Julie, one of my favorite parts about Doge is maybe the most Donald Trump, Elon Musk troll of all time is that they renamed a department authorized by Congress that was dealing with digital efficiency. So it had a very same mandate that was created by statute under Obamacare. So thanks, Obama, for giving us Doge.
SPEAKER 10 :
We got two calls at a minute and a half, so I’m going to try to do it. Let’s go Trent on Rumble. Trent, you got like 20 seconds.
SPEAKER 12 :
Hey, great. I’ll be real quick. Big fan of Pam Bondi. I’ve been following her for a long time. Best thing she ever did was back in 2011, she was going to investigate Trump regarding Trump University because she had a bunch of people in Florida that got ripped off. but then Trump donated 25 grand to her, so she dropped the charges in an investigation.
SPEAKER 10 :
Okay, Trent. All right. Thank you for calling. I’m glad that we were able to. I’m glad you waited on hold for 27 minutes for that. We appreciate it. We have worked with Pam Bondi for the last few decades, and you know what? She’s a great person. We’re excited to see her there. But you know what? Just like the last call, maybe respond to that. You want to help? Don’t feed that troll. Give a donation to the ACLJ. He may have actually been that troll that’s been on Rumble. Yeah, probably. Maggie, on Rumble also. Go ahead. You have legitimately, and I’m so sorry, you got about 15 seconds.
SPEAKER 05 :
Okay, real quick. Thank you for taking my call. First of all, in regards to Doge, since… By executive order, President Kennedy created USAID, so I think Trump has the same opportunity. But that’s not my question. My question I was hoping to ask on AG McCuskey was regarding the preemptive pardon. I know the ACLJ has taken the stance that presidential pardons have broad immunity. Yeah, they can. Yeah, but my question, my point is that you also said that about President… Hey, Maggie, I am sorry.
SPEAKER 10 :
We are out of time and we have to end this show right now. Call back tomorrow. ACLJ.org. Support our work.
